I Love You Sabado (ILYS): To bread for the first time

24 APRIL 2010. Since I started taking cooking to heart, I always looked forward to Saturdays (Saturdays with no work, of course). It's a day for me to practice. Sundays are hectic, as my brothers and I have church commitments in the morning.

The day began like any other day, with me waking up to the tune of my baby nephew's meowing in the other room. Played with him for a while and went down to get ready. I already knew what I'd be doing today.

I liked eating breaded stuff: breaded chicken, breaded pork, breaded fish, breaded whatever. But I've always thought breading is difficult. It seemed like such a hassle. So, back then, if you'd ask me to cook breaded chicken, I'll just fry the thing and say I didn't hear you say "breaded".

My nephew asleep in his carrier on the dining table while
I was cooking, oblivious to the chaos I was making in
the kitchen.

Now that I actually tried breading, I found the FEB (flour-egg-breadcrumbs) process quite entertaining. I thought before it was a hassle. Well, there were a lot of soiled plates and bowls after, but it was cool. Used to a workplace where the Toyota Production System is standard, a simple setup for cleaning up while cooking is in progress became second nature. It was of course quite tricky when doing breading, as you need all the containers at the same time and you finish using them at the same time. But it was OK.

OK, so they're supposed to be golden brown,

and they're just, well... brown. LOL.
Hey, there's my reflection on the kettle! 

I finished frying the breaded breast fillets... and it turned out we didn't have rice yet! LOL. So I took a break... to fold up some clean laundry and finish washing my own clothes the moment my sister-in-law vacated the sink (talk about multitasking!)

My Meals in Minutes propped like the Holy Bible next to the stove.
Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze on page 31.

Just as the rice was almost done cooking, I made the lemon glaze. I didn't exactly follow the quantities here, though, as my 3 lemons yielded 2 extra tablespoons of juice (I just needed 6 tablespoons). So I just made mental calculations on how much more water and honey I should put.

And voila! My first breaded project was plated, drizzled over with sweet-sour lemon glaze and topped with not-so-very-finely chopped parsley (OK, tinatamad na ako, noh! Gutom na ako!).

Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze

Dad was the first to have a bite. Was quite flattered when he said I can already cook for a restaurant (palakpak ang tenga, hehehe). =) I also got positive comments from my mom, older brother (who cooks better than I do and is very hard to please when it comes to food) and his wife.

Baby can't eat with us yet, so he settled for his favorite finger food.

Personally, the dish was OK. I think I should season the chicken a bit more. I was also afraid to dump the entire all the glaze on the chicken when I served it. I was thinking that it might be too strong, but I put some on a small bowl and served it on the side. As it turned out, we ended up pouring spoonfuls of it on our plates like soup and I had to refill the bowl. =)

I started prepping for this dish past 9:00 AM. We ate by 12:30 noon. Not bad, as I had to wait for the rice to cook (which involved some bumming around and lying on the bed) and did laundry and cleaned up and had to call my parents several times to come to the table. 


Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze
Find the recipe on On Yummy Meals in Minutes


*BB*